


let the dead rise like matzah

by EternalEclipse



Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: AUs of Episode 14, BAMF Asuna, Battle, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Klein is a good friend, Swordfighting, Virtual Reality, because that duel after the boss battle at level 75 made no sense, if characters displayed any hint of previous intelligence, nope - Freeform, not even a person, pretending that foreshadowing is a thing, so we're going to FIX IT, that revival item from episode 3, you don't get to turn Asuna into that kind of thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 18:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12195591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/pseuds/EternalEclipse
Summary: In the name of Beating the self fulfilling prophecy of Heathcliff's name, may I present to you the myriad of ways that the final duel of SOA could have gone so much better than it did. Actually, all of it could have gone better than it did, because it didn't take long for the characterizations to go to shit.Fix Its of various bits, every chapter stands alone.Chapters 1-2 are of Episode 14 because there were so many better things to do than to martyr Asuna for True Love in such a useless way and then break the rules of the game.





	1. Asuma's Dynamic Entry

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: Hello to anyone who may have stumbled upon this....not that I'm really expecting much because this seems like a dead fandom I came late to lol. Fair warning that I'm writing these as I'm watching it, so if something is off that's explained later that's probably it. This is mostly an outgrowth of my utter confusion at episode 14, which I had just watched when I wrote the first bits, but extends to "what the hell are they doing now".

_This isn’t a duel,_  Kirito thinks. _It’s simply a fight to the death. And I’m going to win it. I'm going to kill him._

The only question, of course, was how. Kayaba had created the game, so he knew its limitations better than anyone else, no matter how long they had played. Not only would he know all of the pre-programmed combinations for his dual-wielding, but he had seen Kirito fight. Had even trained with him himself occasionally. There was likely nothing he could pull that would be surprising in a good way.

In that there would have been merit, perhaps, in following Asuna’s suggestion. They could have planned for Heathcliff and his overpowered skill, somehow. But the price would have been too high if Kirito had a prayer of defeating him now; if they had lost fourteen of the best to this boss, how much worse would later bosses be?

People were wavering. They were all getting used to this world. There would be fewer and fewer fighters until they all died in the hospitals they’d been moved to, and lost the game. If he was wavering, with his resolve, then likely so were some of the others.

This was the best opportunity, he was resolved. He would beat Kayaba here.

The battle soon began in earnest, and Kirito threw all of the swordsmanship he had learned into fighting the demon who had trapped him there. It was difficult to tell in the mist, but soon he had maneuvered Kayaba so that he had his back to Asuna and his friends. The flash of the crystal wasn’t very bright with the mist that had suddenly covered the boss room.

He waited for the opportunity to present itself, knowing that even if he died, as long as he took Kayaba down it would be worth it. If he lived, he might be able to think about how he managed to just decide to kill a man, even one who had caused as much pain as Kayaba, but in the space of the game he discarded the thought as soon as it came into his head, barely dodging the next strike.

Thirty seconds later he wasn’t so lucky, looking down at the blade that ran him through. He tried to pull himself out for a moment, keeping an eye on his draining HP bar, and ran Kayaba through with his own blades, hoping that the multiplicity would drain the other’s HP faster.

As his bar started to approach red, Kirito saw a red flash behind Kayaba. A moment later, Kayaba’s HP bar fell significantly as Asuna left a deep swipe through Kayaba’s back. Kayaba barely had a chance to look back as Asuna charged her skills in rapid-fire mode, and began draining what was left of his HP.

Kirito almost forgot to keep an eye on his own HP bar as he watched his wife. The shaking that always appeared in his hands once he got to red brought him back long enough that he left his blades stuck in Kayaba long enough to reach for a healing potion and down it.

When he looked up, Asuna had retreated a few steps. The healing potion had brought him back to the yellow zone of his HP, and Kayaba was in the deep red. He too seemed to be reaching for a potion, so Kirito acted quickly, charging a skill in the swords that were still stuck fast. He let loose, and Kayaba’s HP fell to zero percent.

Kayaba had barely a moment to look in surprise before he shattered into clusters of greenish crystals.

When the sword shattered, Kirito’s HP stopped falling. He had entered the red zone again, but that was okay. Asuna ran up to him, pulling out their store of healing potions as the paralysis began to wear off of the other players. He was back in the upper yellows when their world shook and they were all suddenly logged out.

But that was okay, he thought, as Asuna’s face began to fade. He would find his precious people again in the real world, after all. Their hastily put together plan had worked, and he had gotten the last blow in and had killed Kayaba, fulfilling their deal. They had won.

He wonders if Kayaba wishes he had made it into an actual game-mediated duel, so Kirito would have been the only one able to injure him. Then he looks at Asuna’s smiling face one more time and is grateful that he hadn’t. 


	2. Revive and Carry On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what else niggles at me? What happened to that revive item from the quest, and y'know it'd be useful right about then...

“Sayonara, Kirito,” Kayaba says as the tip of Kirito’s dragon-metal sword breaks. Asuna feels herself make a noise of protest more than she hears it, wishing that someone could have gotten out of the paralysis and to their cure crystals. She almost wishes she could look away, so she wouldn’t have to see her husband die. Kirito deserved better than this.

She wasn’t the only one who thought so, she knew, listening to the others trying to get out of their paralyses.

She knew he had failed when the mist cleared and Kayaba was still standing. She looked for Kirito’s HP bar and screamed as she saw it, barely above zero, and still falling. It reached zero and disappeared, and he met her eyes and smiled sadly as he glowed and shattered into greenish crystals, leaving his swords behind.

“That was a shame,” Kayaba said amicably. “Kirito was a worthy enemy. Now, I expect you all to learn from this, and I hope to receive you in the Ruby Palace as soon as possible.” He gave them all a slow once over, and the paralysis cleared. Before they could move, he turned and teleported away.

They barely had a chance to react as the man disappeared. Asuna didn’t move. She could barely even cry, staring blankly at the space where Kirito had disappeared.

Somewhere to her right, a man yelled. Klein was a friend of Kirito’s she remembered as she watched him run up to where Kirito had fallen while rooting through his menu. 

“Here it is!” Klein yelled, pulling an item from his storage. “Revive Kirito!” 

The item disappeared, and Asuna remembered the rumors around Christmas about a special boss that dropped a revival item. She hadn’t been sure she believed it until now. Crystals gathered together as they did when something came into being, and Kirito’s familiar silhouette appeared. The crystals released a burst, and Kirito fell through, ending up on his knees, breathing hard. Asuna checked, his HP was full.

“What?” Kirito asked blankly, looking up at Klein. “Didn’t I die?”

“When you gave me that thing, you told me to use it on the next person to die before my eyes.” Klein laughed sheepishly. “I ended up saving it though, so I could revive one of my friends if I needed to. But when the people I cared about died, I wasn’t there, so I still had it. Most of mine are still around anyway. I think it was best this way though, you won it and it brought you back.”

“I guess,” Kirito laughed, before turning to meet Asuna as she ran up to hug him.

“I thought you were dead,” She cried into his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured back, rubbing her back. “I wasn’t fighting to die.”

“I know,” she said, hugging him tighter as her fire returned to her. “We’re going to beat him.” 

“Of course,” Kirito said. He looked up, and their friends had gathered around him.

“We’re just going to have to grind like hell and train even more,” Agil said. “We’ll get out of here eventually, if we keep trying.”

“Next time we face Kayaba, I’ll kill him,” Kirito promised, as the door leading back outside opened. The living prepared to leave; they would fight again another day. They would clear the game no matter what it took.


End file.
